Inspirational Photographers

Don McCullin

Don McCullin is one of my inspirational artists because he is a documentary photographer and his work relates to my concept. He has taken some of the world’s most shocking documentary photographs and this makes him my inspiration because I want my photos to be shocking. In comparison, McCullin’s and my concept is quite similar, as the theme is documentary and he has taken photos of the homeless. He tries to get people to realise what is happening in the world, and he does this by drawing viewers into his photos and shocking them with the fact that things are going on in our world. He once was not granted a pass to go to the Falklands war to take photos because his photographs were seen as disturbing politically. This shows how shocking his photographs are. I want to shock people because my concept is showing that anyone can be homeless, and a lot of people stereotype the homeless to be deadbeats, smell, and sit on the streets in rags, when a lot of homeless people could be amongst us without us knowing.

This is a very strong photo taken by McCullin, and this shows a lot about its scene. The soldier is obviously in a war, and the stance and expression shows that he is lost, alone, cold and afraid. To show this, he has broken the rule of thirds and made the soldier central to the photograph to make it completely focused on him, so the viewer isn’t looking behind him, and to help that, he has used depth of field to blur the background. McCullin has kept all the vital parts of the photo in the frame, like the hands, the torso, head and the gun. This way, nothing is unwanted in the frame, and the background is blurred out so all the focus is on the man.

Josef Koudelka

Josef Koudelka is another one of my inspirational photographers because he could link to my concept and he is also a documentary photographer. He bases his photos around the Romani (gypsies) of Eastern Europe, and a lot of his photos shock the viewers, and that is what I want my photos to do. Koudelka’s concept is similar to both McCullin’s and my concept because he is documenting war, which is the same concept as McCullin’s work, and he also gets people to realise what is happening in Eastern Europe, and that it is serious. He links to my work because we both want our photos to shock the viewer, and for the photo to have a narrative, so that the viewer can make a story from the photo. Koudelka’s photos show what real things are happening during the war, and it more or less informs the people about what is happening in Eastern Europe.

This photo works because it is a point of view camera, because it what the photographer sees, his arm, the watch, the time, which could suggest that his life is through a camera, because it is his view, of which is the camera. The vertical lines (leading lines) lead to a vanishing point, which leads your eyes down the street towards the spire.

Pep Bonet

Pep Bonet is my third inspirational photographer because he is another documentary photographer, and he takes photos that shock and draw in the viewer. Some of his photos make people feel sorry for the person or people in the photos because of the disturbing scenes that they portray. I want this to be present with my photos, and I want people to feel sorry for the people in my photos and for the photos to be shocking to people. Bonet is inspired by Africa because of the horrific things he has seen there and takes photos of these horrific scenes as part of his work. Bonet has a similar concept to both McCullin and Koudelka because they all are documentary photographers and want to show the world about something, and in this case, it is Africa. I look at bringing in some of the methods they use in their photos like depth of field, rule of thirds and the use of vertical and horizontal lines.

This photo shows a distressing scene and makes you feel sorry for the country, and the people involved in this kind of thing. This picture makes you realise about what is going on because most people will probably never go to this place because of the possible economy.

I want my photos to be shocking and discerning for the viewer and make them want to help make a change.